Variations on a Theme
by Tuna Salad Sonnet
Summary: -LARXEL: 30 Ways Love Never Happened- Axel's night off in the Big Apple has an unpleasant interruption.
1. I'm cruel

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Kingdom Hearts_ or any related characters. This was written out of enjoyment of the series, and no profit is being made.

_**Spoilers:**_ Chain of Memories - Floor Four (?)  
_**Warnings:**_ Implied violence.  
_**Prompt: **_08 - "I'm cruel."

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**Delirium**

Her kunai are beautiful, really. Buttercup edge blossoming from electric blue hilts. "…wonder if your blood is as yellow as your liver," she was saying.

The room slows down a bit and he's able to pick out her blue-green eyes from the haze. "Larxene…"

A dagger thunks into the arena wall next to his left ear. The late night lights swim past his eyes and stitch a grin on his face. "Damn, you're hot."

Her laugh beats murderous and sharp on his eardrums. Metal slips past metal and knives in his sleeves no longer hold him up. He hits the ground and she giggles, kneeling down and smiling.

"Oh, my dear little masochist. I'm not hot," she lets her breath linger hot and heavy on his lips and he leans forward, into it. Her eyelids flutter closed, soft against his. "_I'm cruel._"

She turns and saunters out of the empty arena, and his world spins again.

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**AN. **Just as further explanation, this collection will be made of 30 fics (I'm not sure if they'll all end up being drabbles or if some will go on longer or what) in which Larxene and Axel don't profess their love to each other. There are other ways of saying "I Love You". For more information about the prompts, Google "Un_love_you"!


	2. Thought I needed this

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Kingdom Hearts_ or any related characters. This was written out of enjoyment of the series, and no profit is being made.

_**Spoilers:**_ Chain of Memories - Floor Four (?)  
_**Warnings:**_ Brief violence.  
_**Prompt: **_11 - "Thought I needed this."

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**Cold Blooded Fire**

She had thought, maybe, over the months of theatre visits and laughing in alleyways and dancing in the rain, that they could get married. There weren't any laws governing that she couldn't marry a peasant, thank goodness. Because if there was _anything_ that he was, it was a peasant, spinning his lit torches on stage like there wasn't the slightest chance of him dropping them.

And maybe they _would've_ gotten married. If she didn't hate him so much. If she didn't hate the way his eyes lit up and hate the way he countered her words, just to show he had been listening. She hated the way she understood him without understanding and hated the way his hands were always ashy.

She hated him most for believing Duke Alumari's lies. The ones about the darkness and the ones about who she really hated (loved). He was too good an actor to fall for poison things like that, and maybe she thought, as she fit an arrow into her bow, he never had. Maybe he had tried to use the Duke's lies to investigate the series of murders that had been plaguing the kingdom.

She didn't know. Lae was gone, and he had never told her his plan. She thought they had been _friends_ at least.

And the only thing the Princess knew then, that night, right there in the burning city, was that she was alone. You couldn't trust anyone. Not really. They all end up leaving in the end.

She let the arrow fly as the skies cracked open, sound shaking her veins. The dragon that burned her city turned and roared at the little human that had put a notch in its side. It had green eyes, not like the little shadows that swarmed the streets.

_It's dangerous, what you do, _she remembered saying as her horse overtook the wet cobblestones. _What if you really _did_ cause the whole theatre to go up in flames?_

Princess Nelera grinned as she remembered the answer. _I'd keep dancing. If the city's gonna burn, might as well enjoy it while it lasts._

This time the arrow's twang was in complete synch with the blue paths of fire in the sky. The dragon's flames burned the air as it exhaled, but the Princess grinned savagely.

The blue and red came together and exploded in her eyes, swallowing everything in light and heat, like a stained-glass window shattering. But even then, the pieces started to fall, falling into cold that stung her skin. And the story ended.

Yet so began the tale of Larxene.


	3. This is my desperation in action

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Kingdom Hearts_ or any related characters. This was written out of enjoyment of the series, and no profit is being made.

_**Spoilers:**_ Uhhhhh. If you know what a Nobody is, you're all good.  
_**Warnings:**_ death/murder, blood.  
_**Prompt: **_15 - "This is my desperation in action."

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**Deep City Lights**

Axel climbed over the hood of a taxi cab, its headlights flickering and horn blaring painfully loud. People were evacuating Time's Square, shoving against him, screaming, nearly knocking his newly stolen cell phone out of his hand. Looking back on it later, he wasn't sure how he had managed to call the World That Never Was, much less reach the Nobody he was looking for.

"Xigbar, you idiot!" he shouted into the phone. By now, the square was occupied only by the lingering crowds of people evacuating the theatres and shops. "You let her go to the Big Apple after her first mission?"

"What? Yeah, I thought she'd like it." Axel swore as someone's elbow collided with one of his lungs on his way past him. "Why? What's going on?"

"Don't do that again," VIII said, and threw the phone away.

Larxene was on her knees, hugging her arms around herself and crouched down in front of the black rock statue of the human general. The taxi cabs and cars were still going off; a radio played faintly somewhere as he finally reached her.

He crouched down and put a warm hand in-between her shoulder blades. He looked up at the buildings around them and saw that she had torn a line through the giant colourful screens on the building opposite them.

She had taken down two Somebodies: a young man with tan skin and a girl with black streaks in her blonde hair. He looked up at the buildings again and thought he saw a black shape streak up a wall with a warm pink light in its claws.

He had _told_ the others that he had seen her fight. He had thought that she would get too worked up from battle, that she needed time to calm her nerves. She was just getting used to all this, and she was far more unstable than any of them realized.

"Larxene," he said.

"I killed them," she said, apparently not having heard him. Her voice sounded hoarse, like her throat was burning and he wondered if maybe she had thrown up. The smell of blood was making him dizzy.

"Yeah," he replied, grabbing her by the shoulders and helping her up. "How do you feel?"

She avoided his eyes at first, and he realized how out of place she looked, in a t-shirt with her hair frazzled. "Nothing. I don't feel anything."

"You get used to it," he said.

She grabbed his jacket and pulled him into a kiss, frantic and harsh. She tasted horrible, like phlegm mixing with the smell of broken LED bulbs. He pried her off him and glared. She met it evenly with the blue of her own eyes.

"I don't _want _to get used to it," she said. Her voice was a mix of a lot of things, but mostly he heard confusion and desperation.

"Too bad, princess," he said. He meant it to come out harsh and rough, but for some reason he had been quieted. "Let's go home."

The portal appeared behind him and she glided coldly past him towards it. But the last he saw of her face before she stepped through was her lips set in a straight line that spoke to him without moving: _This discussion isn't over._

_

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_**AN. **Inspired by my first trip to New York, a couple of weeks ago. D: THIS SHIP, IT IS SO DAAAARK.


End file.
